Four programmes secure Global Challenges research funding
University researchers have been successful in securing support from the UK research councils’ new £1.5billion Global Challenges Research Fund.
This will be aimed at using the country’s world-class research expertise to address issues affecting people in low and middle income countries.
Among the research to be supported under the programme are projects to control cysticercosis in Rwanda to help reduce the effects of epilepsy, and assessing non-communicable disease risk factors, injury and mental ill-health relevant to urban areas in south Asia. The project is a collaboration between Leeds and the universities of Liverpool and Rwanda.
In addition, programmes looking at meeting the transport and mobility needs of vulnerable populations in developing cities, and factors influencing socially inclusive cities will be funded.
At Leeds the researchers involved are Dr Rupert Quinnell (School of Biology), Dr Helen Elsey (Leeds Institute of Health Sciences), Professor Karen Lucas (Institute for Transport Studies) and Dr Ghazala Mir (Leeds Institute of Health Sciences).
The awards represent the first phase of research funding anticipated from the £1.5bn Global Challenges Research Fund. The 41 awards are led by the Medical Research Council, and supported by AHRC, BBSRC, ESRC and NERC.
They have been allocated to support ambitious, novel and distinctive research in non-communicable diseases and infections, with the aim of improving the health and prosperity of multiple countries.
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